"Kitchen Witches"cooking up fun

By Louise Carroll, Ledger Correspondent

Monday

Nov 1, 2010 at 12:01 AM

ZELIENOPLE - "The Kitchen Witches" are cooking up an evening of laughter this week for a good cause.

The Penny Players are going to make you laugh and feel good because you are supporting the Pennies From Heaven Foundation that helps the families of youngsters in Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Their play is being performed Friday and Saturday at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Zelienople.

Director Cyndi Weichey said she has put loving care into getting ready for this event because it is a charity close to her heart. Weichey got involved with the Pennies from Heaven Foundation because it was started by her friends Jon and Joni Perry when their son Trevor was on the oncology floor of Children's Hospital.

"This is an opportunity to enjoy fun theater and donate to this great but little known charity," Weichey said.

"The Kitchen Witches," a play by Caroline Smith, is all about Dolly and Isobel, two mature ladies who have had a cable TV cooking show for years and have hated each other for 30 years ever since Larry dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together in a TV show called "The Kitchen Witches," they serve insults along with the food, and their antics top both Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer. The audience will learn if they are able to resolve their differences in the kitchen and on the air.

Bringing these characters and others to life is a talented veteran cast with Toni Schlemmer, Adam Diamond, Rodney Boyers and Cyndi Weichey. Schlemmer and Weichey have a long list of credits at the Red Barn Theatre, the New Castle Playhouse and other theaters. Diamond was recently in the Red Barn production of the "1940's Radio Hour," and Boyers has performed at both the Keane Theatre and the Comtra.

"This play is just great fun, and raising money for the Pennies from Heaven Foundation is what it is all about," Weichey said.

Pennies from Heaven began because when Jon and Joni Perry spent an extended period at Children's Hospital with their son, then 2½ years old, they saw the lonely eyes of children whose parents could not afford to stay with them at the hospital. Since its inception in 2001, Pennies has raised nearly $1 million and has helped more than 16,000 families. All the proceeds from this weekend's event go to the Pennies From Heaven Foundation.

When the Perrys' son was in the oncology ward at the hospital, there was a closet that had been renovated to include a small refrigerator where parents could get beverages for their sick children. When Jon Perry went there, he met another worried father and they spent time talking, each knowing their child had some form of cancer and both hoping for a good outcome.

A few days later, the two fathers had received their diagnosis and shared their news; Perry's news was very optimistic, but the other received the distressing report that his daughter, a teen athletic superstar, would have to have her leg amputated.

On the day of the surgery, Perry looked for the father to see how the surgery went, but he never showed up. The following night, Perry saw his new friend and learned that he could not be there the day of his daughter's surgery because he could not afford to miss one more day of work.

The man cried as he told him this.

Feeling devastated, Perry returned to his son's room and shared the story with his wife, and she, too, was distressed.

In the days following, as Perry pushed his son around the halls of the hospital, he was struck by how many children were alone. The frightened and lonely eyes of these children peering through their hospital doors were a sight Perry could not get out of his mind.

Perry was saddened to learn that most of the children had loving parents who simply could not afford to stay with their sick child.

Eventually Trevor Perry was well enough to go home, but Jon Perry and his wife's lives were changed in many ways. They had been fortunate to be in a good economic position and could be with their son the entire time, but they remained troubled by the children of parents who could afford to stay.

The Perrys were also convinced that the fact they could be with their son was a factor in his rapid response to his treatment and his recovery. They formed a board of volunteers, and Pennies From Heaven began to help the families of these children.

"I've been involved with Pennies for five years now," Weichey said. "It is not the hospital bill that is a problem for these families; it is the expenses that occur outside the hospital, gas, food, lodgings and everyday expenses. People must go to work daily to afford these things."

These parents want to stay with their child, but they have to go to work or there are other children at home and they have no one to help them and no money for childcare.

Pennies provides something as simple as a hot meal in the coffee shop or as complicated as a house payment. The foundation is run on a strictly volunteer basis and all the monies collected go to helping families in crisis. All the legal, financial and logistics of such an operation are taken care of by skilled professionals in their particular field, all for free.

Perry, an attorney, and his wife live in the Wexford area with their sons, Alex, 17, an 11th grader at North Allegheny High School who plays on the varsity soccer team, and Trevor, who is now a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Marshall Middle School in North Allegheny. Perry describes Trevor as very healthy and normal. He is one of the stars of his football, lacrosse and baseball teams.

Louise Carroll can be reached online at wlc7@verizon.net.

If you're going:

What: "Kitchen Witches"

Where: Calvin Presbyterian Church, 415 Grandview Ave., Zelienople

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Reservations are not needed. Tickets are available at the door for a suggested donation of $20.

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